Less Hustle More Coffee

Good morning! A quick entry here as my alarm did not go off. Or I turned it off in my sleep. I kinda remember hitting my watch and wondering if I had turned it off completely. But I intended to blog this morning. So I shall!

The worst news of the day is that the diverticulitis is back. I began having twinges of pain in the lower left abdomen where my “diverticulae sac” is. (The pocket of the colon at the turn where things get stuck.) I am pretty sure it was tomato seeds. Since the whole stomach is not raw and upset, I know it’s not a colitis situation as it is only a certain section that is irritated. So likely something stuck. I had tomatoes also in my Mexican food the other night and had spaghetti twice. My guess is that there is a polyp or something that needs to be removed that is making things so difficult in there. I think it’s been five years – maybe 3 – since the last colonoscopy. But he’s (the doc) likely going to send me in for that. Our medical procedures are opening up now. However, I am first going to see if I can sneak through this one. I can’t live on antibiotics so if it gets worse, or I cannot pass, or I begin getting a fever (infection) – then I will call. It may get better on its own and heal if I do the liquids and soft foods and start over and we’ll see if I can buy some time during this pandemic. But the colonoscopy, polyp removal – or worst case scenario – surgery – some of it is inevitable. There is no sense in worrying about it. It is going to be what it is going to be. Hopefully it will turn out well.

I feel bad for George who has tried to eat with me and eat things that I have to eat. He’s a real trooper in that way. But he must be getting tired of this scenario that keeps happening. Back to the drawing board.

I got into all the vitamins this weekend and finally decided what I needed to take when. I decided to buy and AM and PM pack – so that some will be taken in the morning and some at lunch time with my meal. This is the one I picked out from Amazon. How cool is that. It’s nice as you take out the day and put in your purse if you don’t want the whole thing. This is perfect. I’ll probably be taking out the Saturday and Sunday ones as I won’t have my “work bag” with me when we are out running around. Hopefully the pills fit, lol. These are bigger than they look. I think they will hold 3 big vitamin E’s on each side (for example).

So, I did get a lot done yesterday. I was pretty happy. Although I did not do a lot of cleaning. It really didn’t need a lot of cleaning. Most things are in it’s space and we’ve not messed up too much. I did work on the laundry, hung the bulletin board, got the ironing done, nails and toes done, dog baths are done (even trimmed their front paws but not the back as they won’t be still). Bed sheets changed, pill box ordered, packages from the week opened and put up. Also checked out Zoom. It’s $14.99 for a month. So I did not upgrade to the paid version yet. But I had George get on and practice so I could see how it would work. Seems pretty easy. I also watched the online church in Graham Tx.

But the things I’m most excited about is that I watched a couple of YouTube videos on Movavi software and actually had the free version on my laptop which I’d forgotten about. I hopped on the laptop to do something else and that icon popped out and grabbed my attention.

It’s been a while since I’ve been on my windows laptop. I have it on the desk (table) on the other side of the office but may move it over to this long desk next to my iMac so I can still do PSP. Anyway it’s a lap top and moveable. But the important thing is that since that icon jumped out to me and I opened it up, it took me to their website and I could see the prices. It was reasonable. $79 for lifetime download for it. So that led me to watching the YouTubes just to see what it was like.

The videos showed the basics of starting and saving and several things in between. So I downloaded the software and gave George $100 bucks of my blow money which is all saved up as we’ve not been going anywhere (lol) – it was that much with tax and some extra fee that they had to protect your download. A fee they probably came up with instead of raising the price, lol.

So I got on the iMac and downloaded. It came in a package of downloads. It had a separate video recording program and some type of Media Player. So all that was a little bit confusing as each one had a key and I was trying to use the key for the wrong thing until I realized “oh I had three emails with different keys” on it. The other two came later after I had already grabbed the first one thinking it was for all three, lol. Geez.

So yeah, I bit the bullet and went with a much easier program to use. I actually made a little stupid video with a few clips just to try it really quickly. iMovie has more upgraded things to work with. Movavi is coming out with a newer version in June. But it looks like I already have the 2020 one – at least it says 2020 on it. So maybe I just got it early. iMovie has a better look to its transitions and titles and has a LOT of music to work with. Movavi’s tools were not as many but what good is iMovie if it corrupts my videos and doesn’t work.

So to appease my soul at having to give up a lot of really good sound effects and music with iMovie, I allowed myself to join Epidemic Sound (one month free) which is know to be THE BEST at being able to download songs (can search by mood, or music type, or emotion) for the video you need it for and with copyright protection when uploaded to YouTube, Facebook, or Instagram.

So….if I am going to pay a $15.99 per month fee for Epidemic sound, then I need to be making a lot of videos. lol I may not keep this around forever, but as I told George – “I found a new hobby”. It’s just something I would like to learn to do. I first want to be able to do our vacation videos. But at some point, I may just do some simple videos of our week to add to the blog. Much like blogging led to graphics, it’s also leading me to video now and want to integrate Vlogging into it, if I can and if it makes sense to do so and I can be artful and intent with it – and it is a useful thing. So we’ll see.

I also did the Magazine project which is for the past couple of years, I have folded magazine pages of things I want to go back and keep. Many were recipes, many were websites, some were products to check into. So I’ve torn them out, tossed the magazines, and separated out the recipes and the other is in a file “check out on the internet”. I will share with you as I look these things up. Some things were very interesting. Some were blogs. So I’ll share with you as I “make the magazines come to life” as I call it. lol

And I need to quit blogging and go get dressed, pack some liquids/lite foods for the day to give my colon a rest, and put makeup on and go to payroll related activities. Sadly the info I needed did not come Friday to begin starting on the unemployment taxes we have to pay for the many states we have employees in. There is no way it can all be done in two days along with everything else that has to be done once payroll is closed. So pretty good chance it’ll just have to be late. I’m only one person and also don’t know what will happen with this diverticulitis thing either. It’s a ticking time clock right now. But the phrase of the decade is: “It is what it is!” None of it really in my control so why worry about it.